WEBVTT - Jack-o'-lanterns 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:14.120 of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:18.279 Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Tracy. Pumpkin carving is 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.639 one of my very very favorite Halloween activities. Oh hooray. 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:25.239 I love it like I love it, and I'm talking 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:29.080 about that on Behind the Scenes Forever Halloween Season, Halloween Halloween. 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:33.320 I'm excited about it. Jack o lanearns have become one 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:37.320 of the most iconic symbols of Halloween, but their origin 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:41.319 story is not super well documented because it's not as 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:44.760 though someone just invented them, or even a culture invented them, 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:48.600 or if they were part of a specific event and 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:52.120 then became popular, although they are associated mostly with one culture. 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:54.960 But we'll talk about all of that. So tracing their roots. 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.280 I think I had told you a while back while 0:00:58.280 --> 0:00:59.880 I was working them this, I'm trying to figure out 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:03.040 the shape of it because it does involve some folklore, 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:07.360 some agriculture, there's some literary influence that all come together 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:11.960 to sort of make the jack lantern as important visually 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.440 to Halloween season as it is today. So we're going 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:20.120 to talk about all of that now. So the history 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:24.080 of jack lanterns starts with an Irish folk story about 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:27.959 a man called Stingy Jack. There was a poem to 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:30.120 tell the tale of Stingy Jack that came out in 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:34.280 eighteen fifty one, written by Hercules Ellis. This was included 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.800 in a book called the Rhyme Book, which collected a 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:42.000 number of folk tales and told them in verse. The 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:45.080 story of Stingy Jack is a lot older, though, and 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:49.680 there are many variations. This eighteen fifty one poem opens 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:54.240 with a rather unsavory depiction of Jack and his unkind ways, 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.720 and it calls him by his more formal name of 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:02.960 John rather than Jack. Quote greater Charle was never known 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:07.200 on this earth than Stingy John. From his door, the 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:13.080 poor were turned, unrelieved and cursed and spurned. But as 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:16.720 this version of Stingy Jack's story plays out, while he 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:20.639 is traveling home one night, Jack encounters a poor stranger 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.200 who claims that they are near death, and they ask 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:28.000 for help, and surprisingly Jack offers aid. He picks the 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:30.200 stranger up, and he puts him on his horse and 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.160 brings him to his home, where he feeds this man 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:35.920 and gives him a place to sleep. But then the 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.120 next morning, Jack awakens to find that the poor traveler 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.560 that he helped was actually an angel, who says to 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:45.560 him in the poem quote though called a churl by 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:50.200 all around, mercy in your heart, I've found ask three gifts. 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.600 I'll give them you and my blessing ad there too. 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:59.920 After contemplating this offer, Jack asks for the following quote, 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:04.240 I wish whoever takes my chair maybe fastened firmly there 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:07.680 he to chair and share to ground till my leave 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:11.320 to go be found. Next, I pray whatever fools metal 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.320 with my box of tools may be fastened to the 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:18.359 wall till to let them go I call. Thirdly, sir, 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.440 I would implore that who breaks my sycamore may be 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.880 fixed fast to the tree till I choose to set 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:30.600 him free. And so the angel, sighing, grants these three wishes. 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:35.320 But this seals Jack's fate because in not asking for 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:39.560 heaven when offered anything by the angel and instead making 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:42.760 wishes that are intended to trap people in his control, 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.520 he has doomed himself to never enter the pearly gates. 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:50.680 But Jack doesn't really realize that anything bad is going 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:52.760 to happen. To him at this point, because his life 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:56.240 goes pretty well. He's healthy, his flocks flourish, and he 0:03:56.280 --> 0:04:01.040 gets really rich. But eventually, like everyone old and his 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.800 end of life nears. And because he has doomed himself 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.880 to Hell with these wishes, the devil sends one of 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:11.280 his servants up from Hell to fetch Jack. And when 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.040 that servant comes to Jack's door, Jack invites him in 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.440 and offers him a seat, and that seals the devil's 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:21.080 servant to it because of that first wish. Jack then 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.880 beats the servant. This is all a pretty violent story, 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:26.359 I will say, and then makes him a deal that 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:28.760 if he promises to never come back, he will be 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:32.040 set free, and the servant of the devil agrees to this. 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.400 Of course, the devil has other servants and sends another one, 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.480 and that servant is aware of what happened to the first. 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:43.440 This emissary is adamant that Jack has to report to Hell, 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:45.839 and Jack says that he'll go, but he has to 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:48.520 fix his shoes first or he won't be able to 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.920 make the journey. So he asks the Devil's servant number 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.800 two to hand him an all from his toolbox that, 0:04:56.040 --> 0:05:00.080 of course traps that servant. Once again, Jack beats the 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.080 devil's servant and offers him freedom for the promise that 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:07.760 he will not return. There is another uh. The third 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:10.840 visit that Jack gets is from the devil himself, who 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.039 is tired of his minions being tricked, and, according to 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.320 the poem, quote said Jack, my lord, I'm ready quite 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.320 but dead lame is old. Jack. You must go get 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.080 me a good stout stick, or take me on your back. 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.560 So the devil goes to Jack's nearby sycamore tree to 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.600 get a walking stick from it, and is then fastened 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.640 tight to the tree, where Jack flails him for a 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:37.719 long time. He flails him so much that the devil's 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:41.320 roars are heard as far away as Germany, Italy, and Spain. 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.480 According to this poem, the devil is finally freed by 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.560 Jack after he promises that he will never take Jack 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:51.919 to Hell. But that means that when Jack dies, his 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:56.200 soul has nowhere to go. So this poem concludes at length, 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.159 Jack died, and when his soul was from his body riven, 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.400 it could not get through Hell's wide gate, nor yet 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.039 through those of Heaven. By his free choice, he lost 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.120 the last and Satan did not fail his oath to 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:13.560 keep and Jack to sweep from Hell's gates with his flail. Then, 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:16.280 since Jack is unfit for heaven and Hell won't give 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.360 him room, his ghost is forced to walk the earth 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.320 until the day of Doom. A lantern in his hand, 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:26.120 he bears the way by night to show and from 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:31.240 its flame he got the name of Jack. A lantern. Now, so, 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:34.200 there's a more common version of this folk tale that 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:38.599 pre dates the poem. In that version, Jack invites the 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:40.520 devil to drink with him at a pub, but he 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:44.080 does not have the money to pay to cover the bill. 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:46.760 He makes a deal with the devil, offering his soul 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:50.800 for money. The devil agrees and turns himself into a coin. 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.520 So the plan is Jack will use the coin to 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:56.159 pay for the drinks and then the devil will return 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.440 to his normal shape and leave. But Jack does not 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:02.240 pay his bill with the devil coin. Instead, he walks 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:04.359 out on the bill and puts the coin in his 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:08.200 pocket along with the cross that keeps the devil from 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:12.680 assuming his true form, and eventually Jack decides to let 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:15.640 the devil free from this trap. For a reason that 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.960 is usually determined by the teller's choosing like guilt or fear, 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:21.840 and he makes the deal with Satan at this moment 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.120 that in exchange for freedom, the devil cannot bother Jack 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.320 for ten years. That seems like a foolish deal to make, 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.560 but whatever. When the devil sees Jack again after that 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:36.880 allotted period has passed, he gets tricked again. This time, 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:39.840 Jack says he will go willingly after he has an 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:42.280 apple from a tree that is not too far off 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:45.559 from where this conversation is taking place, and he asks 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:47.840 the devil if he will climb up into the tree 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:53.080 to fetch an especially good apple. The devil obliges. Clearly, 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:55.160 the devil is kind of a ding dong in these 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.640 stories because he just gets tricked over and over. And 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:02.200 while Satan is out this tree, Jack carves across on 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.400 the trunk and that prevents the devil from getting down 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.360 once again. Jack frees the devil this time makes a 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:11.760 deal that his soul cannot be taken to Hell when 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:15.440 he dies. The devil agrees and his freed, and both 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.520 of them just go about their business until Jack does 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:22.600 finally die of old age. At that point, he's refused 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:26.200 entry into heaven and sent by Saint Peter to Hell, 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:30.600 but the devil can't take him either per their previous arrangement, 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:34.320 so instead he gives Jack a small flame from the 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.640 fires of Hell. Jack puts the flame into a carved 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:40.640 out turnip to use as a lamp, and because his 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:44.000 soul can't go to heaven or Hell, he just wanders 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:48.160 the earth until Judgment Day with this little turnip light. Yeah, 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:51.920 sometimes that's described as a flame, sometimes as a burning 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.480 charcoal from the fires of Hell, or a spark. It 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.760 comes up a little bit differently, but no matter the details. 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.920 The story of Stinjack in his lantern is really not 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.160 connected to Halloween initially, but was a way to explain 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:09.400 the idea of floating lights that people saw at night, 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.120 the same thing you may have heard called will of 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.600 the Wisp or some other thing. So those floating lights 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:19.520 associated with bogs are said to lower travelers off course 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.239 and to their doom. They are described as being perpetually 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.199 out of reach, so as a person approaches, they seem 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:31.200 to move away, and there is a scientific explanation for 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:34.760 this phenomenon. They're a couple, actually, So it's believed that 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:38.360 marsh gas, which is high in methane, sometimes produces light 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:42.079 as the flora around it decomposes and creates a chemical reaction. 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:47.360 That's a process called chemoluminescence. The other explainer is bioluminescence, 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.680 which happens when a chemical reaction produces light in living 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.680 organisms and is not a decomposition thing. But before that 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.720 science was understood, the various myths and lore were used 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.360 to explain those boglines and other cultures have completely different 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:06.600 explanations for this phenomenon. But this Irish folk tale is 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.079 the one that gives rise to the Jack o' lantern. 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:11.640 This also reminds me of the make a Light which 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:16.160 we just talked about. Yes, uh so, how did this 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:21.600 tale of the doomed, untethered soul of Stingy Jack lead 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.280 to kids carrying plastic pumpkins around during trick or treat time. 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.160 We're going to talk about the history of the pumpkin 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:30.120 before we get to that, and we will do that 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:43.079 after a sponsor break. Pumpkins are native to North and 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.599 Central America. In the book Pumpkin, The Curious History of 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:50.160 an American Icon, author Cindy Ott makes the case that 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.760 the pumpkin may have been the first plant that was 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:57.000 transitioned from wild to cultivated by people living in the Americas, 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:01.440 making them a keystone of the transition to agricultural versus 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:06.480 foraging society. The oldest cultivated pumpkin seeds we know of 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:10.480 came from the Wahaca Highlands in Mexico, and they're somewhere 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:15.200 between eight and ten thousand years old. That, according to Ott, 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:18.520 makes them two thousand years older than any known corn 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:23.160 or bean seeds. But those early pumpkins were nothing like 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:27.079 the behemoths you can find today at a supermarket. They 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:30.439 were small, their range was pretty close to a modern 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:35.160 regulation baseball or a softball in range. The reasons that 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:38.679 pumpkins became so popular among early American cultures is one 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.559 that's debated. They would not have been the very fleshy, 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:45.480 sweet version that we have today, but a lot more 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.440 bitter with a thinner wall of flesh until they were 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:53.600 selectively bred for having a bigger size and sweeter flavor. 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:58.400 But they were consistent and reliable as a crop. One 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.280 of the reasons that sprouting punkumpkin seeds as a popular 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:05.040 classroom activity today is because it is really easy to do. 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:09.200 Pumpkins grow quickly, and they would have added variety to 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.920 the diet of early agrarian groups. Yeah, if you're like 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.680 me and you dump all your stuff in your composter 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.200 without a whole lot of thoughts, sometimes you get surprise 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.959 gift pumpkin vines. They're just so easy to grow, they 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:27.120 just want to sprout. By the twelve hundred's, indigenous peoples 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:29.800 on the eastern seaboard of North America had a really 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:33.120 established practice of growing pumpkins, and they had been standard 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:36.320 crops even earlier than that in other areas of the continent, 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:40.280 so well before Europeans made their way across the Atlantic, 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:45.720 the pumpkin was pretty plentiful. Exact varieties and specific timelines 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.840 of them are really difficult to trace because those things 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.640 were shifting year to year as sweeter versions were sought 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:56.400 out for eating, and other members of the Kukubatacea family 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:59.960 were cultivated for other uses, for example, gourds that could 0:12:59.960 --> 0:13:03.040 be hollowed out and used as vessels, and these were 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.280 grown alongside corn and beans in what is known today 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.160 as the Three Sisters method of planting. It's also called 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:14.360 companion planting, and in this arrangement, the corn serves as 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.280 a trellis for the beans to grow up the beans, 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.880 stabilize the corn, and add nitrogen to the soil, which 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:24.559 helps support the pumpkins and the corn, and the pumpkins 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.000 or their close relatives, because it's not always a pumpkin, 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.040 protect the soil and roots of the other plants while 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:34.440 suppressing weed growth. Pumpkins are a good source of vitamin A, 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:38.240 with potassium, iron, and vitamin C also included in their 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:42.520 nutritional profile, so their benefits make it pretty clear why 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:46.079 they became an important part of early North American agriculture. 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.160 The word pumpkin doesn't come from the languages of these 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:54.040 indigenous peoples, though. Field pumpkins, like the big orange ones 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.319 that are so closely associated with autumn and its holidays. 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.120 Those were grouped with a lot of other varieties of 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:05.080 crops under the name squash. That word, according to the 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:07.959 Library of Congress, as from the word a scuta squash, 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:11.720 which is a Narragansett word referring to something that's eaten raw. 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.880 The word pumpkin has roots in the Greek word pepin, 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.440 which means large melon. I feel like I said that 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:24.360 as though it were French. When this was adopted into French, 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:28.040 that word was transitioned to Pompon, and then that became 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:33.920 Pumpion and Great Britain before evolving into Pumpkin. So when 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.720 Europeans came to North America, they eventually adopted the pumpkin 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.040 into their own diet as a staple food for all 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.560 of the reasons it had already been popular with indigenous peoples. 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:49.160 In addition to the benefits we've already mentioned, there is 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.480 the bonus that pumpkins can be used just about in 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:55.800 their entirety right. You can roast and eat the seeds, 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.520 the blossoms can be eaten, the skins can be eaten. 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:02.760 You can so treat the skins for other uses like weaving. 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:06.280 So clearly it's a great crop. So now that the 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:10.040 pumpkins place in North American agriculture is established, we're gonna 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:14.760 jump back to the story of Stingy Jack. Because Jack's spirit, 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:18.520 wandering the world, unable to enter heaven or hell, carried 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:22.680 a turn up lantern. Became known as Jack of the 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:26.640 Lantern or Jack o lantern, But he wasn't the only 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:30.160 one called that name. The term jack lantern was also 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:34.000 used to describe night watchmen who carried lanterns as they 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.360 patrolled their areas. The use of the name jack o' 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:41.080 lanterns interchangeably with will of the wisp or other names 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.840 to describe that eerie and uncatchable light we talked about, 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.880 was well established by the late eighteenth century. I found 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.560 it very easy to find numerous newspaper articles that reference 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:56.640 them by the jack lantern name. One appearing in the 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:00.120 Bath Journal in October seventeen seventy nine, is about I 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.800 writ Paul Jones, and it states, quote Paul Jones resembles 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.360 a jack o' lantern to mislead our mariners and terrify 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:12.000 our coasts. He is no sooner seen than lost. Another 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:15.880 printed in February seventeen ninety two in the Freeman's Journal 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:19.640 or the North American Intelligencer, included a criticism of the 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:23.600 French nobility, which read, in part quote, Unfortunately, in their 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.560 search of light, they turn their backs upon the steady 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:32.520 luminary reason and follow certain jacka lanterns that lead them astray. Accordingly, 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:36.800 they have lost themselves in the public opinion. One article 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.160 that appeared in the Portland Gazette in September of seventeen 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.800 ninety eight begins as though it's an etymology of the 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:48.160 word jacobin, suggesting that the final syllable was really lynn, 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:53.160 which was an evolution from land as an abbreviation of lantern, 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.880 and that jacobin and jack o lantern are the same word. 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:01.600 This is, in actuality, a criticism of the Jacobins, comparing 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.959 them to a thing that seems appealing but is in 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.720 fact not. The article includes a list of characteristics of 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:12.639 the jackalantern and concludes with quote to all appearances, it 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.359 is an angel of light, but in reality it is 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.640 an angel of darkness. In short, it is the very 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.240 devil all over. And so my good reader is the Jacobin. 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:26.919 So the idea of a jack lantern was well established 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:29.760 before that eighteen fifty one poem that we mentioned in 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:33.119 the first segment of the show, and some versions of 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.280 the Stingy Jack story also account for the idea that 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:40.200 other people started carving their own turnips and potatoes to 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.560 have scary faces, and they put these creatures in their 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:47.720 windows to scare off the wandering Jack or any other creature. 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:52.720 This actually becomes a little bit confusing because it appears 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.679 that they're in telling this story there has been a 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.520 co mingling of two ideas. So the explainer of the 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:02.960 Boglin light known as Ignus Thoughtuus or fools Fire that 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:08.720 we've been talking about, and the Celtic Sawen celebration. Sawen, 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.840 which means end of Summer, was a festival that marked 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:15.440 the transition to autumn. This was also the Celtic New 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:18.520 Year and was associated not just with the changing of 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:22.360 the seasons, but also with death and rebirth. The end 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.639 of harvest and the preparation for winter has come to 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:28.399 be associated with a lot of concepts, and some of 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.840 them are on the spooky and scary side. Although we 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.639 don't really have a lot of reliable information about the 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:39.160 actual historical practices, it's believed that the Celtic festival, which 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.320 marked the delineation between the light and dark parts of 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.240 the year, also marked a time when the living and 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:47.919 the dead might have contact. There may have been a 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:51.240 time when the world of the supernatural and of deities 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:55.000 was believed to be accessible or at least visible to 0:18:55.119 --> 0:19:00.080 mortal humans. So, based on what we know they're there 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:04.600 are some pretty easy to recognize similarities between historical Swen 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:09.760 activities and modern Halloween, including dressing up in costume. So 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.480 while today's costume party might be about finding the funniest 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:17.880 or most impressive ensemble. The participants in Sooyen were more 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:23.240 likely selecting disguises to confuse evil spirits. Bonfires are also 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:25.320 believed to have been a common practice as a way 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:28.679 to protect the gathered celebrants, and fortune telling may have 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:31.399 been part of the festivities because this was a time 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:35.400 of looking to the year ahead. After the Romans defeated 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:39.280 the Celts in the first century, Celtic paganism was subsumed 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:42.920 into Christian ideology through a careful rewrite of the narrative 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.199 of the meanings of various practices, kind of along the 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:48.600 lines of oh, no, no, no, that thing you've always 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:52.760 done has actually been a Christian thing all along. This 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.720 was especially the case when All Saints Day was declared 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:57.960 in the year six o nine, and then it was 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:02.200 handily moved a couple centuries later to coincide with sawm 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.280 And this is when the day before All Saints' Day, 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:08.879 known as All Hollows Eve, started to develop the identity 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.359 that we would come to recognize as the holiday of Halloween. 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.320 Coming up, we'll talk about how this braiding together of 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:19.679 folklore and holidays led to the jack lantern being a 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:22.639 symbol of the season. We'll do that right after we 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:35.639 hear from some sponsors that keep the show going. So 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:38.640 all of this talk of stingy jack of pumpkin crops 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:43.480 and sawn brings us back to jack lanterns. There are 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:46.800 historians who believe that vegetables may have been carved to 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:50.480 look like heads as part of the Celtic celebration, and 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:52.720 the Celts of the pre Roman era did have a 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:55.960 lot of mythology about the importance of the head, and 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.359 these carvings may have represented the heads of vanquished enemies, 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:03.240 but that is just theory. But a completely different explanation 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:07.119 is that people used root vegetable lanterns for sawn because 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:10.360 they were going around their villages searching for libations, that 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.919 was another part of the celebration, and they just needed lights. 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:18.000 It wasn't necessarily symbolic, and that simple need may have 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:22.000 evolved into the lanterns carved to have faces on them. 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:24.639 Whether that was the case or not, we do know 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:27.760 that carving turnips and potatoes with faces and putting a 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:31.640 candle inside had become a common practice in Ireland by 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:34.879 the eighteenth century, and it does make some sense that 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:38.159 the story that explained the strange Marsh lights and the 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:42.000 traditions of Sawyn had become intertwined because both of those 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:46.120 stories are tied together geographically. So by the time Irish 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:48.560 immigrants made their way to North America starting in the 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:52.800 early eighteenth century, they brought this vegetable carving tradition, which 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:55.680 had already been part of the autumn celebrations with them, 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:59.680 and then they discovered that the pumpkins that were plentiful 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:02.399 in their new home were a lot easier to carve 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:05.919 than the other vegetables and were more plentiful as well. 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:10.679 Before long, pumpkins carved into lanterns with faces were common 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:14.280 in the autumn, and not just in Irish homes. One 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:17.760 of the cultural moments that helped make jack O'Lanterns popular 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:22.040 in the US did not actually feature any jack o lanterns. 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:25.240 That was the eighteen twenty publication of the Legend of 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:28.719 Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. So if you're thinking of 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:31.959 that story and spoiler alert if you have somehow managed 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:34.239 to never read it or see an adaptation of it, 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:38.080 you may recall the headless horseman throwing a jack o' 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:40.639 lantern at Ichabod Crane near the end of the book, 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:45.160 but Irving never wrote that it was a jack lantern, 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:49.520 just a pumpkin. The moment where Ikabad is attacked culminates 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:53.080 in this excerpt quote, Just then he saw the goblin 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:55.879 rising in his stirrups, and in the very act of 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:59.520 hurling his head at him, Ikabod endeavored to dodge the 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:03.080 horrible missile, but too late it encountered his cranium with 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:06.959 a tremendous crash. He was tumbled headlong into the dust, 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:10.960 and gunpowdered the black steed, and the goblin writer passed 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:13.920 by like a whirlwind. And then at the end of 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:16.879 the next paragraph quote, on the bank of a broad 0:23:16.960 --> 0:23:19.399 part of the brook, where the water ran deep and black, 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:23.000 was found the hat of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:27.879 behind it a shattered pumpkin. Just a pumpkin, not a 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:33.080 jack lantern. But illustrations of that scene have almost always 0:23:33.119 --> 0:23:36.280 included a pumpkin with a face carved into it, starting 0:23:37.160 --> 0:23:40.040 very shortly after it was published, and that helps cement 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:43.120 the idea that jack lanterns had been an integral part 0:23:43.520 --> 0:23:46.879 of white European culture in North America from just about 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:50.560 the very beginning and a jack o' lantern was explicitly 0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:54.280 mentioned fifteen years later and the text of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:58.280 The Great Carbuncle. The titular carbuncle is a gem that 0:23:58.320 --> 0:24:01.320 a band of adventurers are just dicussing what to do with. 0:24:01.920 --> 0:24:05.000 One of the character's plans to conceal it under his clothes, 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:07.960 and another replies, hide it under thy cloak, sayest thou 0:24:08.560 --> 0:24:11.080 why it will gleam through the holes and make thee 0:24:11.200 --> 0:24:15.560 look like a jack o lantern. It's unclear whether this 0:24:15.680 --> 0:24:19.640 reference means the carved pumpkin or the glimmering lights over 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:23.760 a marsh. Hawthorne also describes a pumpkin jack of lantern, 0:24:23.800 --> 0:24:26.560 but doesn't use that phrase. In his eighteen fifty two 0:24:26.800 --> 0:24:31.000 story Feathertop, the character Feathertop is a scarecrow with a 0:24:31.040 --> 0:24:35.080 carved pumpkin for a head, and he comes to life. Yeah, 0:24:35.119 --> 0:24:38.000 I favor the side that it in the carbuncle he 0:24:38.080 --> 0:24:40.840